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Brady Bill 2.0: A Timeline

On Monday, May 16, 2016, more than 2,200 Brady supporters flooded Senator Chuck Schumer’s office with calls asking him to keep his promise to introduce a universal background check bill. Within hours Sen. Schumer, a long-time gun safety advocate and sponsor of the original Brady Bill, announced he would introduce Brady Bill 2.0 – a bill to expand background checks to every gun sale in America. Here’s a timeline of how Brady achieved this incredible progress.

November 19, 2015

Senator Schumer attends the Brady Center’s 2015 Brady Bear Awards in New York, accepts an award for his leadership on gun violence prevention, and makes a surprise announcement to a room full of advocates and survivors that he will “bring the universal background check bill to the floor of the Senate early next year.”

March 9, 2016

The Brady Policy team is told that Sen. Schumer will not be introducing a bill to expand Brady background checks to all gun sales.

April 14, 2016

While corporate gun lobby executives are in Washington, DC, Brady meets with Senator Schumer’s staff to ask why he had not yet kept his promise to introduce a bill.

May 16, 2016

9am Brady announces that it would hold a press conference call with victims and survivors to call on Senator Schumer to keep his promise.

10am Thousands of Brady activists begin calling Senator Schumer’s office in Washington, DC. So many Brady supporters call, his DC phone lines become tied up, so advocates are redirected to his New York State offices as well.

Senator Schumer calls Brady President Dan Gross to say he will introduce a bill later that day.

1pm Brady President Dan Gross, Brady organizer and gun violence survivor Kim Russell, and Tom Mauser, father of a student killed at Columbine High School, hold a press conference call to call on Senator Schumer to keep his promise to Brady activists. Gross announces the recent call from Senator Schumer, and the likelihood that a bill will be filled later that day.

6:30pm Senator Schumer and Dan Gross speak on the phone and discuss the timing of introduction of Brady Bill 2.0.